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Former Scranton cop, state drug prosecutor and federal anti-drug warrior Joe Peters might run for the 11th Congressional District seat that Rep. Lou Barletta plans to give up.

Peters, 60, of Lake Winola, Overfield Twp., Wyoming County, a Republican, announced “a listening tour” of the district in a video recently posted on his Facebook page.

“I will make an informed and measured decision after I travel, meet, talk by phone, etc. with people across the district learning about issues important to them, and assessing my background and skill-set to represent them effectively,” Peters said in an email Tuesday.

In the video, Peters stands in front of the Scranton Police Headquarters. The headquarters isn’t in the 11th District — none of Lackawanna County is — but Peters was a Scranton police officer in the 1980s.

Conquering the opioid abuse epidemic will top his priority list if elected, he said.

“I might as well also be standing though in front of a school because we need to educate our children about the dangers of legitimate painkillers and the road to heroin,” Peters says in the video. “Not a day goes by that we don’t open the newspaper and see the photo of the sad tragedy of a young person. And, so often that silent killer is heroin or painkillers.”

If he runs, he will rely on his experience as a police officer, state deputy attorney general in charge of drug prosecution and assistant to the national drug czar under President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush, he said.

Beyond that, Peters said he will tour the district’s nine counties to hear from voters about what issues they want a congressman to address.

The 11th district includes all of Luzerne County outside the Wilkes-Barre Area, Pittston Area and Wyoming Area school districts; all of Wyoming, Columbia and Montour counties and part of Carbon, Cumberland, Dauphin, Northumberland and Perry counties.

Barletta announced Aug. 29 he will run for the U.S. Senate next year. In an interview, he confirmed he would not seek a fifth term representing the 11th district to concentrate on his Senate bid.

After finishing law school and giving up police work, Peters served for 15 years as a prosecutor in the state attorney general’s office in the 1980s and 1990s, rising to deputy attorney general in charge of drug prosecution. His tenure included helping a team of federal prosecutors convict Philadelphia mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo in 1988. Peters joined the drug czar’s office after leaving the attorney general’s office.

For nine months across 2013 and 2014, Peters served as communications director for former state attorney general Kathleen Kane before her conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Before that, he served as executive director of the Scranton Cultural Center at Masonic Temple for almost two years. He earns a living as a homeland security consultant.

■ Robert Alan Howe, an Air Force veteran from Carlisle and the only Democrat to publicly declare a candidacy.

■ State Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Plymouth Twp.

■ Luzerne County Councilman Tim McGinley.

■ Dennis Wolff, a Columbia County dairy farmer and former agriculture secretary under Gov. Ed Rendell.

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